Members can choose to receive 2001 issues as a PDF file
Big savings foreseen–could be earmarked for racing purposes
This month’s issue of the newsletter is available on a website to read and to print out at home in order to help you decide at renewal time whether to continue in 2001 to receive the newsletter via E-mail.
Thanks to John Tomlinson, December’s edition can be found at www.jt10000.com/team/news/crca.htm as a PDF file (Portable Document Format). If you don’t already have the softwareto read the file–Adobe Acrobat Reader–it can be downloaded free through a link at the same site.
Membership renewals for 2001 will be mailed early December. The form includes a choice to receive club bulletins via E-mail as a PDF file. Everyone who has E-mail is urged to make this choice.
The cost of printing and mailing the CRCA newsletter is the single biggest expense of the club–almost $1 per issue per member. The money saved could be used, for example, for coaching, to support efforts at increasing junior membership and to support composite teams at open races.
In addition to saving the club money, there are other advantages to receiving the newsletter electronically as a PDF file. The newsletter is delivered faster: there are no commercial printer delays, no delays in mailing and no U.S. Post Office delays. In a PDF file, the photos appear sharper (and they can be in color), the text is clearer and there can be more pages– we are now limited to 10 pages at first class mail rates.
If you opt for E-mail, club plans include sending the 2001 newsletter to subscribers electronically a few days before the first of each month beginning with the January issue and then–two to three weeks later–making it available to anyone who visits the CRCA website.
Printing newsletter at home
After the Adobe Acrobat Reader is downloaded onto your computer, it is automatically opened by clicking on the icon of aPDF file. A PDF file–the newsletter, for example–also can be printed on your printer at home.
(To save paper, first print the even pages, reinsert them into the printer, then print the odd pages.)
The Reader is a handy piece of software for which there are many other uses. The U.S. Government and private companies now make their forms, brochures and manuals available in PDF format. It has become an industry standard because the PDF document you see on the screen or print on your printer is almost identical to the original.
Again, when you fill out your renewal, we urge you to choose receiving your newsletter in 2001 via E-mail.
Jim Boyd